Don't Give Up By Peter Gabriel
In this proud land we grew up strong
we were wanted all along
I was taught to fight, taught to win
I never thought I could fail

no fight left or so it seems
I am a man whose dreams have all deserted
I've changed my face, I've changed my name
but no one wants you when you lose

don't give up
'cos you have friends
don't give up
you're not beaten yet
don't give up
I know you can make it good

though I saw it all around
never thought I could be affected
thought that we'd be the last to go
it is so strange the way things turn

drove the night toward my home
the place that I was born, on the lakeside
as daylight broke, I saw the earth
the trees had burned down to the ground

don't give up
you still have us
don't give up
we don't need much of anything
don't give up
'cause somewhere there's a place
where we belong

rest your head
you worry too much
it's going to be alright
when times get rough
you can fall back on us
don't give up
please don't give up

'got to walk out of here
I can't take anymore
going to stand on that bridge
keep my eyes down below
whatever may come
and whatever may go
that river's flowing
that river's flowing
moved on to another town
tried hard to settle down
for every job, so many men
so many men no-one needs

don't give up
'cause you have friends
don't give up
you're not the only one
don't give up
no reason to be ashamed
don't give up
you still have us
don't give up now
we're proud of who you are
don't give up
you know it's never been easy
don't give up
'cause I believe there's theres a place
there's a place where we belong

"If you are never scared, embarrassed or hurt, it means you never take chances." ~ Julia Soul

When Things Go Wrong by Anonymous
When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit-
Rest if you must, but don't you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a fellow turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out.
Don't give up though the pace seems slow -
You may succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than
It seems to a faint and faltering man;
Often the struggler has given up
When he might have captured the victor's cup;
And he learned too late when the night came down,
How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out -
The silver tint in the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It might be near when it seems afar;
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit -
It's when things seem worst that you must not quit.

"I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed." ~ Michael Jordan

6 Long Years
In 1914, a 24 year-old young man published a short paper in a German physics journal, Annalen der Physik. His ideas were so revolutionary and important that Time magazine named him the ‘Person of the 20th Century’ ahead of Ghandi, Churchill, Martin Luther King and Elvis... ...

But the edition of Time magazine I'm referring to was printed 86 years after the paper was first published! In the weeks and months immediately following the publication of Albert Einstein's ideas, no one took notice. Nothing changed.

It was 6 years before the scientific community finally got a handle on what Albert Einstein was telling them! It was 6 long years before a university offered Albert Einstein a job that took him out of the Berne patent office and into the recognition of his fellow scientists!

Jack London was rejected over 600 times before he finally sold his first piece of writing. Thomas Edison actually failed over 9,999 times before he perfected the incandescent light bulb.

"Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence." ~ Albert Einstein

For more reasons not to give up on your dreams, please read Acres of Diamonds by Russell H. Conwell.

Alternate Download


The Oak Tree by Johnny Ray Ryder Jr
A mighty wind blew night and day
It stole the oak tree's leaves away
Then snapped its boughs and pulled its bark
Until the oak was tired and stark

But still the oak tree held its ground
While other trees fell all around
The weary wind gave up and spoke.
How can you still be standing Oak?

The oak tree said, I know that you
Can break each branch of mine in two
Carry every leaf away
Shake my limbs, and make me sway

But I have roots stretched in the earth
Growing stronger since my birth
You'll never touch them, for you see
They are the deepest part of me

Until today, I wasn't sure
Of just how much I could endure
But now I've found, with thanks to you
I'm stronger than I ever knew

"Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit." ~ Napoleon Hill

The Chi-Chi Tree by Cass Chin
Your skeletal form
Silhouetted against the winter sky
Branches covered with frost
Your limbs chilled by the frigid air

It was not long ago
When summer shone on your fruit
And your leaves were nurtured by the sun
The sap ran strong, and coursed through each twig

But now your foliage lies scattered
In gutters and along fences
The lush green leaves
Are dead and brittle

Each one a memory
Each one a faded jewel
Each one you grew
And nurtured

A storm then came
Which tore off a limb
First it bent
Then it snapped
The sound of wood tearing
Unheard in the scream of the wind

Now the sap is congealed
On your amber wounds
But the jagged splinters still remain
As reminders you cannot forget

The limb is gone and the bark hangs loose
But you still remember the feel of the wind
Whistling through its twigs
The rustle of its leaves in a breeze

Dark clouds scurry across the darker sky
Winter chills right to the core
It numbs but not enough to ease the sorrow

But winter will pass and spring will come; it always does
Your branches will thaw and again bear fruit
New limbs will grow
And will provide comfort with their shade

Stronger and fuller you will grow
With each passing year
As you learn to take in stride
The seasons of life

"Success is not measured by what a person accomplishes, but by the opposition they have encountered, and by the courage with which they have maintained the struggle against overwhelming odds" ~ Charles Lindberg

 

 

"Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts." ~ Albert Einstein

"The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions." ~ Leonardo da Vinci

"A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices." ~ William James

"Live by what you believe so fully that your life blossoms, or else purge the fear-and-guilt producing beliefs from your life. When people believe one thing and do something else, they are inviting misery. If you give yourself the name, play the game. When you believe something you don't follow with your heart, intellect, and body, it hurts. Don't do that to yourself. Live your belief, or let that belief go. If you are not actively living a belief, it's not really your belief, anyway." ~ John-Roger

"It is better to believe than to disbelieve; in so doing you bring everything to the realm of possibility." ~ Albert Einstein

"The most powerful force in the world is knowing someone believes in you, because you don't want to disappoint them." ~ Cavett Robert

I'm collecting some quotations that touches on Responsibility. Feel free to share your favourite :-) Other people's wisdom can help clarify our own thoughts and stimulate the flow of insights.

Whether we are conscious of it or not, we are always making decisions and each decision affects our lives.

You need not feel responsible for everything and everybody. This will only make you feel  guilty unneccessarily. Moreover, it is the manifestation of an exaggerated expectation of your responsible???

"It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life—daily and hourly. Our answer must consist, not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual." ~ Viktor Frankl

"We are not determined by our experiences but are self-determined by the meaning we give to them; and when we take particular experiences as the basis for our future life we are almost certain to be misguided to some degree. Meanings are not determined by situations. We determine ourselves by the meanings we ascribe to situations." ~ Alfred Adler

"Spiritual perception must be an individual quest or it has no meaning...Even steps in the wrong direction give us insight into the many paths designed to teach us...On the road of life we must take responsibility for all our decisions without blaming other people for life's setbacks that bring unhappiness." ~ Michael Newton

"Each person comes into this world with a specific destiny--he has something to fulfill, some message has to be delivered, some work has to be completed. You are not here accidentally--you are here meaningfully. There is a purpose behind you. The whole intends to do something through you." ~ Osho

"Only people who carry the opinions of others need the support of others." ~ Osho

"The only Zen you find on the tops of the mountains is the Zen you bring up there." ~ Robert M. Pirsig

"You could sit on top of a mountain praying for hours a day and still not make it if you had no love in your heart. You could spend your life feeding the poor and still not make it because your karma required you to bear and nurture children. The path home to God is different for every person. Only communion with your Higher Self will reveal your path to you." ~ Elizabeth Clare Prophet

“Love is what we are born with. Fear is what we learn. The spiritual journey is the unlearning of fear and prejudices and the acceptance of love back in our hearts. To experience love in ourselves and others, is the meaning of life. Meaning does not lie in things. Meaning lies in us.” ~ Marianne Williamson

“The world is a great mirror. It reflects back to you what you are. If you are loving, if you are friendly, if you are helpful, the world will prove loving and friendly and helpful to you. The world is what you are.” ~ Thomas Dreier

“You don’t get to choose how you’re going to die. Or when. You can only decide how you’re going to live - now.” ~ Joan Baez

Under heaven nothing is more soft and yielding than water,
Yet for attacking the solid and strong, nothing is better;
It has no equal. (Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching 78)

The softest thing in the universe
Overcomes the hardest thing in the universe. (Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching 43)

"Don't get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water. Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water. Now you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup; You put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle; You put it into a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend...

Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way round or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves...

If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Moving, be like water. Still, be like a mirror. Respond like an echo." ~ Bruce Lee

Discover the Power of Water & the Effect of Our Thoughts on Reality

Also read Paulo Coelho's To Be Like a River Flowing & tell me how you might want to go The Way of Water ;o)

"If you see your path laid out in front of you -- Step one, Step two, Step three -- you only know one thing... it is not your path. Your path is created in the moment of action. If you can see it laid out in front of you, you can be sure it is someone else's path. That is why you see it so clearly." ~ Joseph Campbell

"In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins - not through strength but by perseverance." ~ H. Jackson Brown

This is from a series of photos I took on 18 July 2005 at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne. It has a very special significance for me which I shall not reveal here... ...

"A photograph never grows old. You and I change, people change all through the months and years but a photograph always remains the same. How nice to look at a photograph of mother or father taken many years ago. You see them as you remember them. But as people live on, they change completely. That is why I think a photograph can be kind." ~ Albert Einstein

 

If you wake up today with no pain,
you are luckier than most.

If you have never known the dangers of war, loneliness of prison, or hunger,
you are better off than 500 million people in the world.

If you can go to your church or temple or follow your beliefs without persecution,
you are luckier than three million people on this planet.

If your basic needs are covered,
you are richer than 75 per cent of the rest of the world.

If you have some savings,
you are part of the 10 per cent of the most prosperous people in the world.

If you saw your parents grow old together,
you are almost unique.

If you smile and appreciate life,
you are lucky because lots of people can but they don't.

If you have someone whose hand you can hold or can hug or even just a shoulder to cry on, be happy,
you will never be lonely.

If you can read this,
you are blessed because more than two million people on the planet cannot read.

Dwell on your blessings and achieve higher goals for the benefit of yourself and others.

~ Anonymous

"The fountain of content must spring up in the mind, and he who hath so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition, will waste his life in fruitless efforts and multiply the grief he proposes to remove. " ~ Samuel Johnson

"It is common to overlook what is near, by keeping the eye fixed upon something remote. In the same manner, present opportunities are neglected, and attainable good is slighted, by minds busied in extensive ranges, and intent upon future advantages. Life, however short, is made still shorter by waste of time; and its progress towards happiness, though naturally slow, is yet retarded by unnecessary labour." ~ Samuel Johnson